Many manually-operated railroad switch stands offered and utilized in the United States by the rail transportation industry are provided with a hand-crank assembly that is operated throughout a rotational range of approximately 180 degrees. The assembly has an input shaft that requires only about 120 degrees of rotation to achieve a change in switch operating positions, and a so-called "lost motion" torque-transmitting connection between the hub of the crank arm element and the switch stand input shaft element. Such switch stand units also are normally provided with foot latches or similar devices for locating and retaining the switch stand crank assembly element securely in its alternative and approximately 180 degree-separated extreme operating positions.
It is well-known that railroad operating personnel responsible for manual switch stand operation may frequently experience costly serious back injury, generally in the nature of spinal injury and/or excessive muscular stress, in the course of actuating switch stands having the known crank assembly with a lost motion connection configuration. Some improvement in switch stand operator ergonomics has been achieved by a reconfiguration of the handle element normally attached to the crank lever for use by the switch operator. However, it has been discovered that a still further reduction in operator injury may be realized by additionally applying ergonomic principles to a redesign of the manually-operated stand in a manner that essentially eliminates the need for moving the hand-crank arm element through the range of motion that is excess to the switch input shaft rotation requirement.